Going by Freud, dreams are made of primal visuals concocted by the unconscious. Over the years this uncanny trick of the mind and the eerie fairyland it assembles turned out to be a favourite with the makers of motion pictures. And it is the colossal possibilities of precognitive dreams that Alchemy, the short film anthology, explores. So I Quit for a While by Arun A R, Edge by Rahul Surendran, Ghost Town by Sudheep P T and Chilling Valley by Wilson B are the four short films that are part of the compilation.
“Though all the parts in the film have their own identity, they are tied together by a common link. So I Quit for a While follows a youngster who starts getting bizarre visions. His dreams are strong premonitions and what follows is a whirlwind of events that involves spine-chilling situations and narrow escapes,” says Arun.
Rahul Surendran’s Edge is about Perivayal Nambiar, a freedom fighter who was hanged to death. Through a series of flashbacks the film tries to unfurl his unusual life. Ghost Town zooms its camera to Dhanushkodi, a land ravaged by the elements. The film has the format of a docu-fiction capturing the tragedy of a town that was blown into pieces by the cyclone in 1964. “Ghost Town has a style where reality and fantasy keep on overlapping. It’s about a group of students who visit the place for archeological excavation. The film has many underwater shots making it the first short film in India to have underwater filming. But basically the film tries to analyse the concept of death,” says Sudheep.
From the ghastly seaside the film shifts to the snow-capped peaks of Himalaya and chilling valley forms the last piece of the anthology. “Chilling Valley touches upon terrorism and it’s the only episode that deals with future. All the four parts spring from the same concept and are basically dream sequences,” he adds.
Alchemy was canned at various locations including Ladakh, Kulu, Manali and Dhanushkodi. It also has some of the known names in the industry as part of the crew including LVK Das, the editor of many Kollywood hits like Mynaa and Kumki. M S Jones has scored the music while Sreedhar Karthavarayan has cranked the camera. The anthology produced by Elshadai Creations was completed at a budget of ` 8 lakh.